ABSTRACT
The primary goal of this chapter is to provide an overview of research findings on the orthographic effects of Japanese as a first language (L1) on reading acquisition in English as a second language (ESL). The first section, reflecting the historical background of the Japanese writing system, illustrates four types of scripts that are all used in modern Japanese text: kanji, hiragana, katakana, and romaji. The second and third sections briefly review Japanese modern literacy education and recent English education. Major research findings of Japanese orthographic effects on second-language (L2) reading acquisition are reviewed in the fourth section. It focuses on three aspects in which the Japanese learners of ESL may experience L1 effects in the course of L2 reading acquisition: (a) the type of information dominantly used in word recognition, (b) metaphonological ability, and (c) efficiency in processing the constituent letters in an English word.
